Boston guard Isaiah Thomas is a relatively-tiny 5-foot-9, while Houston small forward Trevor Ariza is 6-foot-8 and one of the league’s premier defenders.
So if Ariza were to take the ball hard to the rim, you wouldn’t expect Thomas to reject him. But that’s exactly what happened in a recent Seattle Pro-Am game:
Ariza, to his credit, had an appropriate emoji response about the incident when asked on Twitter:
???????? https://t.co/M9W9TND8Zr
— trevorariza (@TrevorAriza) August 29, 2015
Thomas, a Pacific Northwest native, didn’t directly comment on the block on his Twitter account. But he did retweet video of it — including a perfect still shot at the apex. He’s proud of it, as he should be:
The Celtics visit Houston on November 16, relatively early in the season. So Ariza won’t have to wait long, should he want payback. For now, the Boston guard clearly has bragging rights.
Ben DuBose is a veteran sports reporter who has followed the Houston Rockets and the NBA since Hakeem Olajuwon was Akeem Olajuwon. He writes for both SheridanHoops and ClutchFans, an independent Rockets blog. You can follow him on Twitter.